FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT NEW YORK THEATER - PAGE 2

The Broadway revival of âPippinâ scored seven awards from the Outer Critics Circle, with the musical notching kudos for musical revival, director (Diane Paulus) and lead actress in a musical (Patina Miller), among others. âKinky Bootsâ followed with three trophies, including the one for new Broadway musical, while that tunerâs major Tony competish, âMatilda,â took two. As with all the awards handed out in the run-up to the Tonys, the Outer Criticsâ tally is far from a reliable barometer of the outcome of upcoming Tony races.

The Barrow Street Theatre, an off-Broadway producing venue that keeps a particularly close eye on what's popping in Chicago, is where David Cromer first made his name, when his production of Thornton Wilder's "Our Town" transferred from Chicago in 2009 and exploded a director's career. Currently, Cromer is at it again at the Barrow Street, the 199-seat New York theater that most resembles an off-Loop venue, where his brilliantly directed production of Nina Raine's "Tribes," a raw, searing play about a young deaf man's journey within a dysfunctional family of British intellectuals, allows Cromer to play to his strengths.

"Forbidden Broadway," the continuing satirical revue famous for taking no prisoners in its daft assaults on Broadway's biggest crowd pleasers, is doing quite nicely itself this theatrical season, having added "City of Angels," "Meet Me in St. Louis," "Grand Hotel" and "Gypsy," among others, to the big-time shows on its "hit list." Showing no mercy, creator Gerald Alessandrini and his four-member troupe have even dragged the moribund "Annie II" out of its freshly dug grave for more punishment, with the "Forbidden" cast's two ladies donning curly-haired moppet wigs to make it painfully clear that two Annies were absolutely one too many.

To Gail Berman the cultural chasm is not especially wide between serious plays like Athol Fugard's "Blood Knot" or David Rabe's "Hurlyburly" and television shows like "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Malcolm in the Middle." Berman produced all of them. "Producing is producing, whether you're on Broadway or television," said Berman, the new president for entertainment at the Fox Broadcasting Co. "You have to remember who your consumer is in the theater, just as you do on television.

If you attend an acclaimed theatrical production, and find yourself doubting that you saw the same one critics so ecstatically received, the reason could be simple: You didn`t. So observed writer William Goldman in his landmark book on American theater, "The Season," remarking on the phenomenon of revolving performers- and changing performance quality-in long-run Broadway shows. Unlike movies or television, the theater is never frozen, but an evolving art that can change over time.

Marion Dougherty. Mike Fenton. Juliet Taylor. Ellen Chenoweth. Howard Feuer. Lynn Stalmaster. Jane Jenkins. Janet Hirshenson. Elizabeth Leustig. Jaki Brown Karman. "Batman," "E.T.," "Hannah and Her Sisters," "Avalon," "Reversal of Fortune," "Frankie and Johnny," "Backdraft," "Dances With Wolves," "Boyz N the Hood." Chances are the names in the first paragraph mean nothing to you but the movies are very familiar. And yet, without those people, none of those films could work their magic.

Like so many aspects of life in Manhattan, theater has been affected and altered by the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. Attendance at one of New York's primary tourist draws plummeted after the tragedy, and five Broadway shows folded. Yet, Broadway's still up and running. So what if there's nothing like Mel Brooks' The Producers" on Broadway's horizon this season? Shows like last season's all-time Tony Award champ come along once in a decade, if then. The real producers who regularly send their hugely expensive trial balloons to Broadway and off-Broadway theaters have a whole flotilla ready for 2001-2002.

Harold Prince, one of the most prominent Broadway directors and producers of the last 30 years, has resigned from the League of American Theaters and Producers. Prince accused the league, Broadway's trade association, of paying too little attention to rising ticket prices and labor costs. Prince's resignation came after that of Alexander H. Cohen, producer of Broadway shows and the Tony Awards telecast. Cohen has yet to comment on his reasons for leaving the league. Prince resigned in a letter to Harvey Sabinson, the league's executive director, and Richard Barr, its president.

Landmark Theatres offer specials for adults to bring in their babies and save money, but this particular "Rattle & Reel" screening may strike some as odd. The Landmark Theatres website announced that they will be showing Lars Von Trier's highly sexual " Nymphomaniac : Vol I" as part of their Rattle & Reel special, where adults pay normal admission but can bring their babies for free, at their Sunshine Cinema in New York. The special is good for March 26 as well as April 2 The website reads as follows: "The Sunshine Cinema welcomes caregivers and their babies on Wednesdays for our special Rattle & Reel screenings.

With real estate development sweeping across the western part of midtown Manhattan, hundreds of small show business enterprises are being forced to close or move out of the nation's leading theater district. Many show business professionals fear that, as a result, the district's vitality and character may be jeopardized. Rehearsal studios, casting concerns, propmakers, lighting suppliers, recording studios and other businesses are facing large rent increases or eviction. Many already have moved out of the neighborhood, and a continuing exodus is feared.